It is always difficult to tackle negative behaviour in a positive way that corrects the issue without causing resentment and / or damage to the relationship.

The BIFF model is one of the simplest and most effective ways of guiding your approach to the situation that I have come across.

‘‘

B ehaviour

What is it they are doing that is causing the problem? Present facts in order to reduce the risk of conflict. Be specific about the behaviour that you are seeing or experiencing from them.

For example; ”You have been more than 10 minutes late on three occasions this week”.

‘

I mpact

What impact is their behaviour having? Again, present facts to reduce the risk of conflict and again be specific about how their behaviour is impacting you, the team, the organisation or your customers.

e.g. “Whenever you are late someone else has to cover your position and this means they are diverted from getting on with their own work”.

‘

F eelings

Express how this makes you feel i.e. Angry, sad, frustrated, etc. We can all relate to feelings more than their cause so they are a powerful way to give some ‘scale’ to the problem.

e.g. “This make me feel disappointed with you”.

‘

F uture

Open the discussion on what changes are to be made. This is the start of 2-way discussion. Stick to the facts laid out in the BIFF steps to prevent denial or reasoning of the situation.

‘

To keep on track and achieve a successful conclusion, make sure that you have a clear vision of the ideal behaviour looks like and be able to share that vision with the other person. Make it real so that they can understand it and offer support and guidance as appropriate.

There are many this kind of events in our daily work, and the follows is one of them:

workload too high leads mistakes and delays:

B: There are too much work need to be finished in such a tight schedule, so I can not guarantee the accuracy and deadline;

F: Harm to the department and company, and also is destroying career

F: I feel this kind of behavior reflects two possible feelings:
- Scared and lack of confidence to ask for re-assigning the work if the workload is truly too high;
- Ethics problems or lack of responsibilities if the workload actually is reasonable

F: Two ways upon the actual situations:
- High Workload > ask for reassignment or more source
- Reasonable Workload > self-development or ask for the help from coach

Barry

"

Sorry! Something went wrong on our end. Please try again later.

TrainLearnLead

September 19, 2017 05:03 PM

"Glad you liked it Barry, can you think of examples of where you could have used it? Would it have helped you?

Excellent guide on how to handle a difficult situation. Any manager in this position needs to learn to handle the scenario with poise and express feedback to the employee in a constructive manner. The BIFF model certainly encourages both!

I look forward to reading more!

Best,

Katie "

Sorry! Something went wrong on our end. Please try again later.

OrrinWoodward

September 19, 2017 05:03 PM

"Martin,

Excellent guide on how to handle a difficult situation. Any manager in this position needs to learn to handle the scenario with poise and express feedback to the employee in a constructive manner. The BIFF model certainly encourages both!